Hope
by Banci Taman Lawang
Summary: Joel and Ellie decided they would try a new place to settle. [Set after TLoU, and post-epilogue Warm Bodies.] [OS]


**Foreword:** This is like, my sixth, or seventh attempt on writing English fanfiction. I think this fared better than the last? 970 counted words. Joel, Ellie, R, Julie, and Nora made appearance in this fic. Hope you enjoy!

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 **Hope**

 **The Last of Us crossover with Warm Bodies fanfiction**

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They are confronted by a trio of young adults at the gate of the stadium. Two girls, one very tall with laid back stance raised an eyebrow at him. The young man accompanied them looks very lanky and almost as tall as the girl, maybe a bit taller, but he did not any visible weapon for self-defense. This time, Joel raised an eyebrow at them. Suddenly doubting his choice of temporary settlement. What kind of a leader who lets one of his crew defenseless?

"Excuse us," The ash blond girl in the middle, nodding curtly to his way, acknowledging him as the one responsible for the life behind him. He could feel Ellie crooned her neck trying to see over his shoulder.

"I'm General Grigio's daughter, Julie, this crude girl here is Nora―" "Hey!" The tall laid back girl with copper hair fisted the Grigio girl on her upper arms. Said girl looked like the fist didn't even affect her a bit. "―and this is R," Julie nodded to each person at her sides.

Joel stopped and nodded slowly, acknowledging Julie, Nora and R.

"'R'? Like the letter R?" Ellie stepped up, standing on Joel's left side.

"Shorts for Romeo, his legit name, because he almost died falling in love with _Julietta_ here." Said Nora, nudging R by his shoulder. "He's a former living-dead." She faux-whispered and then smiled, as if the crude girl, Julie and R waiting for their reaction.

Joel froze; he stopped and gripped his gun but didn't move. He watched as said former living-dead twitched in his place, squeezing the Grigio girl hand in their intertwined limbs. Julie gave him a tight smile, giving hints that she knows exactly what running trough Joel's mind at the time. Nora smiled brightly when Ellie just gaped at the revelation.

"Whoa." The teen cannot stop herself from scanning R up and down.

"I know, right?!" said Nora, smirked. "He gained some weight and coloration of his body, his heart is beating normally but still too slow." Nora assessed as if R is her proudest lab-project. "You should've seen him when we put a make up on him, he's a total hunk." Julie groaned at Nora helplessly, sounded more like a living-dead more than anything.

"Oh, come on, Julie! No offense, R, that's a compliment." The girl keeps grinning at her face-palming friend and R just altered his gaze somewhere else, as if he's trying to tune out Nora. Watching their interaction, Joel knows this is a very usual type of banter and happens every now and then.

"I'm sorry―" Joel began, he's tired of these bullshits.

"Oh yeah, report to my father." The Grigio girl looked like she had slapped herself. "Let us escort you to the base."

They walked trough the gates for a short time, before Joel and Ellie led to pretty big alleys between decent buildings, probably already occupied by people, towards a complex of elite houses.

It seems that the laid back girl doesn't like silence as she tries her best to come up with a topic.

"I see you guys very curious about the story of R here?" R dodged Nora's pat on his back, the former living-dead now young man with abnormal coloration scooted closer to his assumed girlfriend, Julie, making a distance between him and Nora.

"Oh well," said the copper-headed girl. Nora then turned to Joel and Ellie, "You see, after the incident that one I told you about Julietta almost killing herself? Yeah, that one." She nodded to herself. "We brought R to the base to study and treat his wound."

"It's truly amazing when we discovered that a living-dead still could bleed!" Nora then laughed out loud before continuing, "It turns out he was falling for that girl there it awakens the beat in his heart."

"That sounds a lot like Disney movie cliche," Joel snorted, he's sure he sounded very cynical just then.

"HA! Oh yeah, like, totally." Said Nora chuckling at the thought of certain Princess story.

"What's a Disney?" at the question, everyone stopped walking. Nora and Julie stared incredulously, even R looks surprised. Ellie just shrugged, she really doesn't know.

"I'm sorry," Julie began, looking very scandalized. "Are you living on the run, or you've attended the afterbreakout school?"

"I attended them, like, six years before I ran?" Ellie answered, at the corner of his vision he could see Julie grimaced when the youngestof them all gave her a second shrug. Joel really doesn't get what's with Julie and shrugs.

"Really?" Ellie nodded. "How did you not know about Disney? Didn't they drill that movie-time class trough out the state?" Uttered Nora, but she seemed like she wonders the question to herself.

"El, Disney is a company that made children movies―" Joel said before he gets interrupted by Nora. "Nu-uh, first, it's not a children movie. Second, that company is amazing."

"Nora," Julie said in a warning tone.

"Okay―so that's not the point, Disney made series of animation movies, or distributed a lot of them. It's a substantial class that everyone from first to sixth grade had to take."

"Oh, I never attended that class, my friend said it's useless." Ellie shrugged again, she doesn't know what to do when it seems that she's ignorant of things most people knew.

"Actually there's a purpose―" Nora began.

"Watching them g-gives you hope." The voice was very low, it went barely unheard.

For the first time, Joel and Ellie heard R talks. It was amazing and surprisingly soothed their subconscious about him being threatening. He sounded very humanly.

"Yep. R's here is a fan." Nora beamed while R blushed.

"Don't mind her, R. You could read and watch whatever you want." Julie defended, smacked Nora good on the head.

Joel thinks he could get used to this place. There's a new hope for the cure, and it will no longer have to be given a sacrifice of a life that he's not ready to let go just yet. Watching Ellie smiles without uneasiness, he's content for now.

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 **End notes:** Please let me know if you find any grammar or spelling mistakes! Have a nice day!


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